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from MacroScope:
Not again, please! Brazil and India more vulnerable now to another crisis
After bad economic news from Germany, China and the United States over the past few weeks, here are two more. Brazil and India, two of the world's largest emerging economies, are increasingly vulnerable to another crisis or to the eventual end of the ultra-loose monetary policies in developed economies after five years of a severe global slowdown.
Weak demand for Brazil's exports and the voracious appetite of local consumers for imported goods widened the country's current account deficit to 2.93 percent of GDP in the 12 months through March, the widest gap in nearly eleven years. In dollar terms, that amounts to $67 billion.
To help fund this gap, Brazil could at first loosen the currency controls adopted in the past few years and let more dollars in. But if the dollar flows change too swiftly, Brazil would find itself with three other options: curb spending by growing less, allow a decline in the foreign exchange rate at the risk of fueling inflation, or burn part of its international reserves - which are large, at $377 billion, but not infinite.
Such an outlook could get even more challenging if commodities prices drop - and last week's tumble in many products sent a reminder of how volatile these markets can be, hurting not only Brazil but many other Latin American exporters.
from Global Investing:
Making an Impact may be new good
If the pure pursuit of greed is no longer good in the post-crisis world, what defines the new "good"?
That's when you start to consider "Impact Investing", a type of investment that pursues measurable social and environmental impacts alongside a financial return. According to a report prepared for the Rockefeller Foundation, approximately 2,200 impact investments worth $4.4 billion were made in 2011.
from The Great Debate:
Stubborn national politics drag down the global economy
Four years ago world leaders, meeting in the G20 crisis session, agreed they would all work to move from recession to growth and prosperity. They agreed to a global growth compact to be delivered by combining national growth targets with coordinated global interventions. It didn’t happen. After the $1 trillion stimulus of 2009, fiscal consolidation became the established order of the day, and so year after year millions have continued to endure unemployment and lower living standards.
Only now are there signs that the long-overdue shift in national macro-economic policies may be taking place. The new Japanese government is backing up a "minimum inflation target" with a multi-billion-dollar stimulus designed to create 600,000 jobs. In what some call the “reverse Volcker moment,” Ben Bernanke has become the first head of a central bank for decades to announce he will target a 6 percent level of unemployment alongside his inflation objective. And the new governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has told us that "when policy rates are stuck at the zero lower bound, there could not be a more favorable case for Nominal GDP targeting.” Side by side with this shift in policy, in every area but the Euro, there is also policy progress in China. It may look from the outside as if November’s Communist Party Congress simply re-announced their all-too-familiar but undelivered wish to re-balance the economy from exports to domestic consumption, but this time the promise has been accompanied by a time-specific commitment: to double average domestic income per head by 2020.
from Global Investing:
Weekly Radar: From fiscal cliff to fiscal tiff…
The new year starts with a markets 'whoosh', thanks to some form of detente in DC -- though this one was already motoring in 2012. The New Year’s Eve rally was the biggest final day gain in the S&P500 since 1974, for what it's worth. And for investment almanac obsessives, Wednesday's 2%+ gains are a good start to so-called “five-day-rule”, where net gains in the S&P500 over the first five trading days of the year have led to a positive year for equity year overall on 87 percent of 62 years since 1950.
So do we have a fiscal green light stateside for global investors? Or does it just lead us all to another precipice in two months time? Well, markets seem to have voted loudly for the former so far. And to the extent that at least some bi-partisan progress reduces the risk of policy accident and renewed recession, then that's justified. And Wall St's relief went global and viral, with eurostocks up almost 3% and emerging markets up over 2% on Wednesday. Even the febrile bond markets sat up and took notice, with core US and German yields jumping higher while riskier Italian and Spanish yields skidded to their lowest in several months.
from Global Investing:
Emerging Policy-the big easing continues
The big easing continues. A major surprise today from the Bank of Thailand, which cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent. After repeated indications from Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul that policy would stay unchanged for now, few had expected the bank to deliver its first rate cut since January. But given the decision was not unanimous, it appears that Prasarn was overruled. As in South Korea last week, the need to boost domestic demand dictated the BoT's decision. The Thai central bank noted:
The majority of MPC members deemed that monetary policy easing was warranted to shore up domestic demand in the period ahead and ward off the potential negative impact from the global economy which remained weak and fragile.
from Chrystia Freeland:
America’s middle class goes global
President Barack Obama did a miserable job of making his own case last week. But speak to his supporters and the pitch is clear: The American middle class is being hollowed out; Obama's self-appointed mission is to try to save it.
That is what I heard from Jeffrey Liebman, one of the president's economic advisers, at a debate about the election I moderated at Columbia University on Monday. Liebman said the central difference between his candidate and Mitt Romney was the president's view that trickle-down economics doesn't work. Instead, he believes policy needs to focus on the middle class. Economic growth, he said, should come from the middle and radiate out.
from Expert Zone:
How QE3 changes commodity prices
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
On Sept. 13, the U.S. Fed announced the QE3 program whereby it purchases mortgage-backed securities at $40bn per month with no time limit. It also pushed out guidance on keeping a low funds rate to mid-2015 from late 2014.
from MediaFile:
Survey: VCs more confident investing domestically, in IT sectors
If every cloud has a silver lining, the silver lining for global venture capitalists during the current economic gloom appears to be cloud computing, according to results of a confidence survey from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association released Monday.
The first Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey measured the input of more than 440 venture capital, private equity and growth equity investors from around the world, revealing that global VCs have higher confidence investing domestically versus abroad and in information technology sectors like cloud computing and social media.
from Expert Zone:
Bashing China won’t fix U.S. economy
(The views expressed in this column are the author's own and do not represent those of Reuters)
Both ends of the political spectrum seem to be competing to be tougher on China economic issues. They’re both wrong.
from Ian Bremmer:
The good, the bad and the global economy
Everyone knows the world’s economies are becoming ever more intertwined, but we’re only just starting to understand the ripple effects.
Welcome to the new global economy: One guy sneezes, and someone else gets a cold. That’s what we’re seeing in the slowdown now happening in the U.S., in Europe and in emerging market countries all around the world. Barring some kind of radical decoupling, the tight correlation in fates between these economic titans is a phenomenon we had better get used to, and understand, because it’s not going away. Indeed, this fact by itself – that our world is operating more and more like one big system every day – is not all bad news. However, a word of caution: Where interconnectedness yields benefits, it also creates pitfalls. Let’s look at a few examples of how this global system is actually working in our favor.
